Marvel's Runaways Will Differ From the Comic in the Best Way

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At first glance, Marvel's Runaways seems like a bizarre hybrid of Gossip Girland The Avengers, where rich teenagers use their superpowers to run away (get it?) from their parents after realizing they've all been raised by supervillains. And with a first glance as compelling as that, who wouldn't watch this show?

At its heart though, the series has a deeper message about the current climate in the United States that its stars and creators hope reaches the show's audience.

"I think this is a time where figures of authority or are in question," executive producer Josh Schwartz told reporters at the Summer Television Critics Association summer press tour. "Just because somebody is in charge doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be good."

"It gives hope to young kids that they can be their own hero," young star Allegra Acosta eloquently added. "That we can totally conquer the world without a suppressor or without a controlling egotistical figure."

The country's leaders are certainly in question right now, but we doubt they're sacrificing human souls in their secret underground lair like the Runaways' parents are — at least we seriously hope that's the case.

Human sacrifice sounds extreme, but while you probably won't like or root for the parents of this super-powered teen drama, don't expect to hate them either. They show splits perspective with the kids and the adults — a departure from the original comic — humanizing what would have been a pretty black-and-white group of villains.

"There's no true villains in the show," Schwartz says. "It was really important to us that we take the time to build out the parent characters in the story as well."

The best part of having evil parents that aren't really evil is that it creates a new, more complex narrative for the show to dig into, and it sounds like telling the parents' side of the story is not the only change that the show will make.

"If all we're going to do is take scenes from the comic and put them up on a screen, that's unfair to comic and television show," says executive producer Jeff Loeb. "[There is] not a one-for-one kind of feel to it."

"It digs deeper into the comics and makes it feel more modernized," Allegra Acosta says.

When pitched the obvious question about a major twist that occurs in the original canon, however, Loeb remained mysterious about whether that would be incorporated. We won't spoil that shocker for you, we'll only say that leaving it out would probably rob the story of an even more interesting Season 2, if Hulu does decide to continue with the series.